I just wish every time the recording says, “This is your final opportunity for X” that it really was the last time they called about it. I’ve blocked two numbers that both called twice in the past 3 days - all about “Final Opportunity for car insurance.”
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Not sure if this is a scam in America. But we live in another country, and this is the way several charities operate. I’ve probably had at least 5 charities come to our door just within the past 12 months operating this way. They won’t take cash and want you to sign up for an ongoing commitment - usually at least $50/month.
They have handheld electronic devices so you can sign up then and there. I’ve turned down some and accepted others … not a scam but I don’t like it b/c it feels intrusive to me (maybe b/c I’m American and dislike the intrusion more than people who’ve grown up in this country).
Anyone who is selling something to me at my door is not getting my business.
Unless it’s Girl Scout cookies. 
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A local news station is doing a story today on people who received fraudulent EIDLs (government loans). They noticed an awful lot of loans in Maine that would say something like, “Smith, farm at 200 Commercial Street,” which is in Portland’s business district. Of course there is no farm there. The reporters visited quite a few addresses to make sure those weren’t just the “official” addresses of legitimate agricultural businesses. Nope. So somehow the scammers received the loans, but now the people AT THE REPORTED addresses will be asked to pay the loans back!!! Unbelievable. The reporters said it is millions and millions of dollars in Maine alone, so it’s probably billions across the US.
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I get a lot of those Amazon ones. I just delete them.
I’ve had 2 patients receive the same scam in past week. One lost $20,000. The other caught on when pressed for. Twice that amount. These people knew how much was in their checking accounts. They threatened to drain all the money. They knew facts about these women and kept them on the phone, raising their anxiety level. The bank that seems to have been hacked is Wells Fargo.
Any details about what the scam is?
Both women answered the phone when they didn’t recognize the number.
Both were told how much was in their accounts. They were told if they didn’t take out part of that money, their accounts would be drained completely.
They were told to go to bank, take out cash in large sums, then go to Western Union and wire it. One was to Thailand. They were given instructions on what to say to bank tellers and how to wire the $.
Similarities were eerie. Both were told the man would be fired if not given the $.
These men are experts. They kept the women on the phone for hours, gaining personal info.
I hope this helps
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I hope it makes the news. In a situation like that I’d be having whoever I could reach call Wells Fargo (or whatever bank) and freeze my account while I was writing down the information as slowly as possible (need a pen… find some paper, etc).
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I don’t answer any number I DON’T recognize.
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Unfortunately, some of those calls are legitimate and time-sensitive. I have a spam filter on my iPhone and I don’t get calls from numbers not in my contact list. It is a problem sometimes.
Well, like my dad says, “They can leave a message”. There is way too much spoofing numbers these days.
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We definitely answer phone calls. When one is in business for themselves, missing a new call can easily mean they turn to the next person who answers it and you lose out.
It’s not difficult (for us) to spot spammers and hanging up is easy.
My IT lad loves to play with spammers. In his job he used to coach others in to how to stay safe, so he tells us he wants to stay up on what current ones are doing. He says some are really dumb and he can get a lot of info.
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I had an email in my spam mail last week that has me freaked out saying there is a $799.99 payment to Coinbase. It’s a legit broker for Bitcoin. I did not do this. So far it’s not in my PayPal transactions or on my c.c. There was no link to click, just a phone number to resolve any disputes. There’s an order number and a person’s name. How are they trying to get me? What’s the scam here?
Makes me so nervous as it looks totally legit.
I had a notice like that they they took $499 out of my paypal. I went into paypal and removed all my credit card numbers.
Now I get notices from paypal that my account is out of compliance. I don’t care and just don’t use paypal.
Another scam is a text, purported to be from someone you know or some business you work with. For example, AirBnB or that your Facebook or Amazon account is suspended, please click this link.
I recently saw a post about a vacation rental home host who fell for the, I thought, well-known scam where the ‘guest’ says their business will mail a check, then the check is too much, should have gone to the travel agent, can you deposit it and refund the excess. She did, then the check bounced, she was out the money she refunded plus had blocked her calendar for a month.
well, my D16 learned a life lesson this year. She used her debit card somewhere in May. a thief got her number; and then used it to pay their auto insurance and renters insurance monthly. She did not look over her monthly statements thoroughly to realize that these monthly payments were happening. (about $200 a month). After 7 months she finally realized it, filed a police report and for bank fraud. Thankfully, after a lot of paperwork and calls, the bank reimbursed her for all. But- she really learned that she needed to look over her statements monthly.
we did a little investigating. the renters insurance company had a phone number (out of state) associated with my daughter’s card payment. we gave it to the police and they said DONT CALL it. I dont know if the bank will try to get that person for $1400; but i hope they go after them.
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I got a message recently when I signed onto my Wells Fargo account (one night in the middle of the night when I had trouble sleeping) that it was time to update my password. I was in the wells app so thought it was ok and did it… then thinking maybe that was a bad idea. I went to the computer and was able to get onto the account with the new password on the computer (I do also have 2 step authentication), but not able to get into the account on the app! Ugh. So called the 24/7 number and fortunately the issue was that the app needed updating, and then it worked. It tried to use a captcha thing which also didn’t work. That was very worrisome. Note to self: don’t do that stuff in the middle of the night!
Separate issue: DH works in IT for a large company. Got a call from the CIO saying he’d gotten a call from the FBI that the company had been the victim of a cyber attack, and that the FBI had been able to see the suspicious activity and alert the company before too much damage was done. Sounds fishy, right? Nope- it really WAS the FBI calling and they really HAD been the victim of a cyber attack!! Needless to say it was weeks of dealing with it before the hackers did too much damage, and now DH says the security levels are so tight it’s almost impossible to get anything done! And for a while they were not permitted, for obvious reasons, to log onto the company site, couldn’t use emails or the internal “chat” system. They had to use whatsapp or use this ancient technology called… the TELEPHONE and actually call each other!
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I’m absolutely sure that the caller from the FBI didn’t have a thick accent and wasn’t yelling that the CIO has to pay him lots of money (using Amazon gift cards) to keep from being arrested by the FBI. 
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It was probably payment in bitcoins. 